Palm Treo 750v

A wise man once said that there were two types of people in this world: Windows Mobile fanatics, and Palm lovers. Over the past five years, while the former have enjoyed a plethora of new-age models to choose from, including the likes of O2, HP and Dopod, the latter have constantly clung onto their one true shining glory, the Palm Treo 650. Two years ago, to everyone's collective surprise, rumors were rife about a Palm-Windows collaboration, for the flagship series no less. A year later, Asia watched as the US received the Windows-driven Palm Treo 700w, a marriage between two handheld powerhouses that was received with mixed reviews. Now the new Treo 750v has finally arrived on our sunny shores, and easily bears our strong recommendation as one of the best PDA-phones money can currently buy.Design
At 111 x 58 x 22mm and 154g, it is virtually identical in size to the Treo 650 but sheds 20g in weight. Perhaps because of this, the handset feels solid and tough, yet isn't too heavy. More strikingly, the obtrusive stubby antenna which dotted the 650's neat package has thankfully been removed with the new Treo. From the sleek silver rim surrounding the square display to the blue rubbery back casing, the Treo 750v is one classy handset with an executive tinge to it. Build quality is also superb.

Even though the 750v's 240 x 240-pixel, 65K-color touch screen is slightly lower in resolution compared with the 650, it is still sharp, extremely bright and easily viewed under direct sunlight. The touchscreen display itself is also very responsive.

One of our favorite features, the one-touch silent mode rocker located at the top of the handset, has been changed from a protruding metallic knob to a flushed plastic slider with grooves. While this makes it slightly more difficult to maneuver, it also prevents accidental switching of modes.

Many have raved and praised the Treo 650 for being truly operational with one hand, and much of this is due to the five-way navigational pad and soft keys. The 750v's central navigational pad is just as comfortable and easy to use, and all the softkeys provide excellent tactile response when pressed. The 750v has Start and OK keys in place of the Palm-based Calendar and Mail options of the 650, while two other buttons just below the display are designed to operate the bottom menus of the Windows Mobile 5.0 interface. Furthermore, the rubber back casing allows for a firm yet comfortable grip, making one-handed operation less tiring.

The full QWERTY keypad is adequately illuminated by a white backlight when pressed. For phone usage, the 0-9 number pad is cleverly integrated into the keyboard as well, accessible by pressing the shift button at the bottom left. The keypad can feel a little cramped, especially for people with large hands, but typing is generally accurate once you get used to the layout. For SMS lovers, much faster typing speeds can be managed using two thumbs with the fingers supporting the phone.

Together with the camera sensor and small reflective mirror for self-portraits, the large speaker grille is unfortunately located at the back of the handset, resulting in muffled incoming alerts unless the phone is deliberately rested with the display side facing downwards. An IR port and miniSD slot are found on the right side of the 750v, while the volume controls and a customizable button rest on the opposite side.

One minor gripe we had with the Treo was with the stylus, where the rear plastic half feels a little flimsy compared with the steel tip. However, we hardly ever had to extract the stylus from its holder because of the ease in operating the phone via all the external controls available. The miniSD cover is rather flimsy and a bit hard to close. Going with a 2.5mm audio jack at the bottom of the handset means an external adapter is needed if you wish to plug in your favorite 3.5mm earphones. We would also have preferred a mini-USB connection from Palm to PC instead of the proprietary data cable hookup, but at least the data cable comes bundled with the standard package.
Features
The beauty of the Treo 750v is that Palm has included many useful touches to improve the Treo's migration to the Windows Mobile platform. For instance, if you ever find the Treo responding rather sluggishly, which rarely happened, holding onto the Ok button brings up the all-too-familiar memory management screen, so users can immediately remove programs running in the background, hence improving performance. One tap of the call button returns the phone to the Today screen, while the Call Cancel button switches off the display. Other shortcut keys can also be customized to open your favorite applications.

Phone implementation is arguably the Treo's strongest selling point. From the Today screen, users can either type a person's name via the keyboard to run a quick search through the stored contacts, or directly enter the number using the number pad. Speed dials can be stored and easily accessed on the Today screen, in the form of text names or small photo thumbnails. A text message can also be sent automatically when ignoring a call, so the other party knows when you're in that crucial meeting. All in all, making and receiving calls with the 750v seem as native and natural as using traditional mobile phones, something which cannot always be said for many PDA-phone hybrids in the market.

Another nifty feature, the SMS chat thread, has also made its way from the 650 to the 750. Messages sent and received are displayed in the form of chat windows similar to those of Yahoo and MSN Messenger. This way, users just need to select the sender in the mail inbox to view all messages sent to and from this person in a clean and convenient fashion.

Although Wi-Fi is conspicuously absent, the Treo 750v is a 3G-enabled phone, though the lack of any front camera sensor completely rules out two-way interactive video calling. With a USIM, we were able to surf the Net on-the-go. The inclusion of a Google Toolbar on the Today screen is another thoughtful feature. However, due to the squarish 240 x 240 display, a fair amount of scrolling is required when surfing the Web which may put off some users.

Via ActiveSync 4.2, we were able to synchronize and transfer all our Outlook data and contacts easily. Despite having a miniSD slot which supports SDIO functionality, the relatively low availability of such devices in the market currently limits its usefulness for the average consumer. Bluetooth and IR complete the connectivity options on the 750v.

The main flaws of the new Treo show up in its multimedia capabilities. All multimedia files are expectedly handled by Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, but the results are rather disappointing. When using the included stereo headset, music playback suffers from unbalanced treble and is sorely lacking in bass. At maximum volume, the sound from the speakers is sufficiently loud and clear. However, the screen freezes occasionally for a few seconds when watching video clips, which can be really disruptive.

The 1.3-megapixel camera without photolight is also a letdown. There is a noticeable 1- to 2-second shutter lag when snapping photos. The pictures themselves have poor color saturation and often suffer from overexposure. Video recording at a maximum 352 x 288-pixel resolution is mediocre at best with insufficient audio pickup.
Performance
While many Windows Mobile devices pack in powerful processors but underperform on a regular basis, the Treo 750v is surprisingly fast and smooth operating. Using a 300MHz Samsung processor, 128MB of ROM and 60MB of non-volatile RAM to provide persistent storage, menus and applications generally open without much loading times, almost reminiscent of the speedy Palm OS.

The quadband phone uses a 1,200mAh Lithium-ion battery which lasted us on average two days before running out of juice.

Conclusion
At S$1,268 without plan (or S$968 with a two-year contract) from M1, the phone doesn't come cheap. However, Palm has taken an excellent design, improved it on several counts and, most importantly, thoughtfully customized it for Windows Mobile users. The end result is a device which is both an excellent phone and a useful handheld. So long as Wi-Fi and multimedia are secondary in your agenda, you can hardly find a better PDA-phone than the Treo 750v.